Doom: The Dark Ages review - great game, not the best Doom

In 2016, id Software studio found a successful formula to revive the cult Doom. Created after a 16-year break, the game perfectly combined the quintessence of this series with modern solutions, which is why it appealed to both veterans of the franchise and new players. In the sequel, Doom Eternal, the developers decided to take a risky move and introduced new platforming mechanics, a base of operations, and an even greater emphasis on the plot, which did not necessarily appeal to the most loyal fans of Doom. So does the third installment, Doom: The Dark Ages, return to its roots? Yes and no...

The controversial parkour and base were removed, the emphasis on individual gameplay mechanics was changed, but there is no shortage of new features here. The Dark Ages is Doom in the style of Michael Bay - a spectacle of enormous scale, where an epic scene happens one after another. If you think that halfway through the game you've already seen everything, fought the biggest enemy the size of a skyscraper, then the developers seem to say: "ha, ha - well, check this out!". In this game, Doom Slayer swims, flies, controls mechs, and even... no - that would be a spoiler.

The Dark Ages is undoubtedly a sensational, extremely satisfying demon slaughter in amazing locations, but is it the best game in the Doom series? Here, the opinions will be divided, because many elements are not bad in themselves - they can simply be more or less to one's liking, depending on what one expects from a Doom game.

Too much talking, not enough shooting

However, one thing is probably objectively bad - the story told - but I write this from the perspective of a fan and veteran of the series since 1993, who believes that apart from the sentence - "People have opened a portal to hell on Mars." - a game from the Doom series doesn't need anything more about the lore. The Dark Ages is supposed to be a prequel to the new installments, although this is rather marginal in significance. The game is filled with cut-scenes with cliched phrases in dialogues and various side characters, which are very stereotypical and completely unmemorable. We got an ambitious representative of hell, who despite ruling hordes of demons, can't do much without a mysterious artifact guarded by people from the Sentinels faction. During the invasion of the hellish forces on their realm Argent D’Nur, the Maykr race intervenes, sending Doom Slayer to fight the demons. And as if that wasn't enough, the hell was ed by a mysterious race called The Old-Ones from some cosmic dimension, whose leaders are the spitting image of Cthulhu from Lovecraft's books.

I got the impression that the plot in The Dark Ages is there just to piece together transitions to different dimensions with different location designs. It's not engaging, it's not well-narrated, and at the end it seems to want to shock a bit forcefully, and then play on emotions, but even that doesn't work out very well. Cut-scenes kept knocking me out of the rhythm of joyful demon slaughter, and besides, all these new locations are begging for a touch of mystery, ambiguities for our own interpretation, where we are and why. Instead, we have a forced story in which the powerful Doom Slayer is a pawn in the game between the Gears of War team, Diablo's cousin, aliens from Halo and even Cthulhu. I like coherent stories, but nothing here is coherent, nothing in this strange mix fits together and it's simply unnecessary in the Doom universe.

This is not the Middle Ages, it's dark fantasy

Turning a blind eye to the story, we can focus on the visited locations - done in a style completely new to the Doom series, and in this case they are indeed something positive and fresh. The vibrant colors of Doom Eternal's levels have given way to a much more subdued palette, characteristic of the dark fantasy style. I was surprised by the forest shrouded in fog, the quasi-Gothic fortresses of the Sentinels also look great - you can feel the atmosphere straight from Demon’s Souls here. The Old-Ones' minimalist and monumental buildings are also quite impressive. There is also the obligatory visit to hell itself, which, thanks to the improved graphics engine, has never looked so good.

We visit most of these places on relatively large, semi-open maps, where we usually have to perform several tasks in any order, including mandatory battles with hordes of demons and mini-bosses on designated arenas, and optionally, look for secret rooms and collectibles. It somewhat resembles the open levels from the latest installments of Call of Duty or the Halo series. The terrain expanded horizontally instead of vertically for a reason - it had to fit the new combat mechanics, more on win a moment.

Generally, there are no more extreme challenges with jumping on platforms, swinging on bars. Sometimes you just have to jump over a gap or climb up a small wall. Some level of verticality of the maps has, but you can either normally walk up the path or use the shield that has replaced the grappling hook. All you need to do is find the anchor point, shoot the Shield Saw, and it will pull you to the right place. Throwing the shield also activates various mechanisms and this is how most of the secret ages and rooms were hidden - you just have to look carefully at what and where can be activated.

Without a doubt, the developers here were inspired by Kratos using the Leviathan axe to solve environmental puzzles in the new installments of God of War. The search for secrets now relies on perceptiveness, not agility. I came across only a single really interesting puzzle involving rotating a room by 45 degrees, where I had to think for a moment about what to jump on and in which position to move on. Map designs have become somewhat simpler, flatter, with a lot of running around in open terrain, but in no way is this a problem.

Dodge, parry, hit with the fist

Open spaces are a deliberate change dictated by the new mechanics in Doom Slayer's combat style. In Eternal, we were forced to use weapon swap and glory kills to replenish ammunition and health. Now the battles take place in arenas, and the basis of the combat system has become strafing to the sides to avoid red projectiles flying towards us and parrying green ones. Blocking the attack now causes the most damage to enemies, and additionally allows to deal an exceptionally strong attack with a melee weapon - Power Gauntlet, Dreace or a Flail (a ball on a chain).

Shooting is of course also important, especially with rapid-fire weapons, against groups of weak enemies, and when facing the more armored ones, the traditional, extremely powerful double-barreled Super Shotgun still comes in handy. The arsenal is generally quite rich, even if the weapons are new versions and variations of what we've seen many times before. The most distinctive gun is the one that shoots crushed skulls or a ball on a chain. The iconic BFG, on the other hand, has been replaced with a powerful, wooden crossbow that shoots energy bolts, and the biggest fans will have to get over a small change in the name - in The Dark Ages it is now BFC - Ballistic Force Crossbow. You can also unlock an alternative and upgradeable firing mode in every firearm. Their damage can be increased by runes with various effects. So it's worth looking around for secret places, because that's where you can mainly find gold and gems to buy upgrades at special stations - altars.

The bestiary is quite huge, however many of them appear in several variants, only slightly differing from each other in appearance and types of attacks. Again, the oldest Doom fans are in for a cold shower, because some of the iconic demons look completely different. The Cacodemon, which in Eternal was strikingly similar to the original design from 1993, in The Dark Ages looks like a levitating alien brain from the movie Mars Attacks!, while Pinky has become a quadruped mount with an archer on its back. The spectacular effects of blasting off pieces of "flesh" from enemy bodies are still here, but I noticed that there are much fewer glory kill animations and they are not as refined, nor as inventive as in Eternal. It is clear that this was no longer a priority for the developers after the change in combat mechanics.

It cannot be denied that the core of the gameplay has become avoiding red bullets, parrying green ones, throwing a saw blade, which cuts into enemies stunning them for a moment, and then following with a melee attack. At many points, visually, the fights look exactly like Returnal - we maneuver to avoid walls of spherical projectiles and position ourselves opposite the green ones, then run up and hit the demon with a mace - in the meantime shooting at enemies. This scheme was even used in fights with main bosses, except that there are more projectiles. It is all suitably spectacular, with an appropriate dose of challenge on hard and higher difficulty levels, however, in the second half of the game I was already a bit tired and bored of it. Compared to just shooting enemies with different types of weapons, the repetitiveness of such a scheme begins to stand out too much.

The mech is good, the dragon is not

Perhaps the developers felt the same way, because the gameplay is enriched with two completely new mechanics - flying on a dragon and controlling a huge mech - Atlan. This second option turned out quite well. Atlan is the size of a skyscraper and can easily trample surrounding buildings, and when fighting demons of the same size, we participate in something resembling slow-motion boxing. Huge titans beat each other and you can really feel, or rather mainly see, the enormity of their sizes and the power of their blows. It's noticeable because all sound effects are generally very soft and muted, done poorly when it comes to the technicals. I tried to change the sound settings in the game and it didn't help at all, and I'm sure of my equipment - I have speakers with a subwoofer and when I was parrying attacks in Clair Obscur, my windows were shaking, and when playing Doom, you could easily take a nap. Because of this detail, the destruction of the environment, even outside the mech, reminded me more of demolishing structures made out of styrofoam, not rocks and stones.

Despite everything, the sequences with Atlan turned out to be a huge plus. They are a nice change from running around arenas. However, the same cannot be said about the Mecha Dragon. The beast generally looks phenomenally in cut-scenes, but when you mount it, the game switches to TPP and then the dragon is no bigger than a pigeon. Size does matter, because all magic fades away, and the dragon combat system isn't great. You can only lock onto something with it, e.g. a turret, and dodge projectiles. A successful dodge charges an energy shot, which has enough power to destroy the target. There are several such battles, forced by the plot. There is no freedom in using the dragon except for flying over the map. This is even more schematic and linear than parrying in arenas and it does not add anything to the gameplay. The recently released mod for Microsoft Flight Simulator adding a flying dragon proves that this could have been done much better, with a first-person perspective and the ability to attack and destroy any place - Doom lacks such an approach.

Doom has never looked so good

Lastly, it is worth mentioning a few technical aspects. Doom: The Dark Ages looks a little bit better than Doom Eternal. However, the naturally looking environment, with mountains, trees, rocks taken straight from some national park impresses the most. Lights and shadow quality have been improved. There is no longer the impression of one, global lighting cast over the entire scene, but more realistic sources around torches or windows, which can be seen mainly in the corridors of fortresses. The destruction of the environment is enjoyable - all wooden structures or stone statues crumble under fire, it's just a pity that the mentioned sound design doesn't deliver here. However, the soundtrack is fantastic, traditionally with a heavy, metallic sound.

The amount of options that can be customized, not only graphical ones, deserves praise. In the menu, we will find numerous settings in the difficulty level section and the interface, which can be modified to suit our needs. In my opinion, the game is a bit too easy at the normal level and if someone is looking for a minimal challenge, they should consider playing right away on hard. Better graphics mean higher system requirements. Doom Eternal ran on my PC with RTX3070 and i5 10600 without a hitch at 60 fps on high details. As for The Dark Ages, such settings cause drops below 60, and Ultra settings even below 50 fps, if a lot is happening in the arena. The good news, however, is that low settings do not cause a significant deterioration in the graphics quality. The biggest changes can be mainly seen in how light reflects on the floors in the rooms and in the sharpness of the shadows.

Old school single-player, just like in the good ol' days

This may sound trite, but I think I need to quote a sentence repeated regarding various other well-known series. Doom: The Dark Ages is a great game, a fantastic demon slaughter festival, but not exactly the best Doom, excluding visual aspects. There's too much plot, dialogue, side characters, cut-scenes, too much trying to make this campaign feel like Halo and Call of Duty. On the other hand, such an approach may appeal more to people who are unfamiliar with the beginnings of the series, not emotionally attached to the franchise since the 90s. I would cut out the plot, flying on the dragon, make firearms more effective instead of using parrying, and boost the sound effects. The rest is a great mix of dark fantasy with science fiction and a piece of good, strictly single-player gameplay, just like in the good old days!